Re: Nintendo and iOS games

While there would be plenty to say on the technical (say, heterogenous multiprocessing in the iPhone 7) or tech-related (say, Apple’s transition away from the 3.5 mm audio jack) announcements from the latest Apple announcement event, I want to focus today on one that has been less talked about (relatively). Which is the commitment from Nintendo on smartphone games, materialized, and how, by Shigeru Miyamoto’s appearance on the event to present a Super Mario game for the iPhone.

Miyamoto-san’s appearance is not that big a deal, per se; or at least that is what my head says (he has appeared as a guest in non-Nintendo productions before), because, look, for someone like me who grew up on Apple hardware and the NES, seeing Miyamoto-san and Apple together in some official fashion is like some sort of childhood dream come true. Nintendo being willing to show what is arguably their most iconic character starring a game on Apple hardware is, however, a big deal whether you look at it from the viewpoint of your adult self or your 10-year-old self.

One thing I was particularly interested in was the angle, namely, how they would justify it being on a handset by taking advantage of something they couldn’t do on their own hardware (a discussion you may remember my old post, from when everyone in the Apple community seemed to have an opinion on what Nintendo should be doing); turns out, it’s one-handed operation and quick start, quick stop interactions. I never saw it coming, but makes every bit of sense: I triple dog dare you to play anything on any Nintendo handheld one-handed (well, maybe WarioWare Twisted, which you may remember from my earlier post), and while the DS (and later devices) goes to sleep when closed and can be resumed quickly, most of the time this is not really conductive to such gameplay; which is fine: this is one of the reasons I still play on my DS during my commute, because I have an uninterrupted 30-minute stretch in it where I’d rather play something “meaty”. However, I indeed never take it out while waiting for the bus.

And on that matter, while the aim is not to make a score sheet of what I got right or wrong back then, I have to admit that I was wrong that Apple would not be going to bend the rules for Nintendo: Apple introduced an interesting feature on the iOS App Store specifically for Super Mario Run. Indeed, even though the game is not out yet there is already a page for it on the iOS App Store, where instead of the “get” button you have a “notify” button. I have no doubt this is going to be extended to other developers in the future, but for now it’s exclusive to Super Mario Run.

I’ll also note that this kind of smaller-scale project fits well with Miyamoto-san’s role at Nintendo, where a few years ago he changed position to focus on more experimental projects rather than head the blockbuster game releases.

While previously Nintendo’s commitment to smartphone games was questioned even with the DeNa partnership, then Pokémon Go (which many considered as not being “real” Nintendo games, an assessment I do not share, but what do I know?), now with Shigeru Miyamoto’s appearance and Super Mario Run there is no doubt on Nintendo’s commitment, it will be hard for them to turn back on that. And who knows, maybe at some point Nintendo will make that WarioWare for iOS based on Apple nostalgia games I expected back then…